Taiwan and Japan to resume fishing talks over Senkaku Islands

Senkaku / Diaoyu / Diaoyutai islands

Japanese news sources are reporting that Taiwan is officially spurningChina’s request for a joint China-Taiwan alliance over the disputedEast China Sea islands (Japan calls them Senkaku, China calls themDiaoyu, Taiwan calls them Diaoyutai), and resuming talks over jointJapan-Taiwan fishing rights around the islands, which are said to berich fishing grounds mainly for bluefin tuna and flame snapper.Relations between Japan and Taiwan took a nosedive when the Japanesegovernment effectively nationalized the disputed islands on September11 by purchasing them from their private Japanese owners. However,although Taiwan and Japan have never had an easy relationship, they’redeveloping a closer relationship because they have a common enemy inChina. This new alliance between Japan and Taiwan is certain to beinfuriating to both the Chinese leadership and the highlynationalistic younger Chinese generations. Yomiuri Shimbun (Tokyo) and Central News Agency (CNA, Taipei)

China claims that the disputed islands belong to Taiwan

The agreement between Japan and Taiwan becomes particularly significantin view of a historical claim by Liu Xiaoming, China’sambassador to Britain. In an article last week, he says:

“My first ambassadorial post was to Egypt. I have manymemories of this ancient and beautiful country. One is the MenaHouse Hotel, which I visited many times. Situated at the foot ofthe spectacular Cheops Pyramid, the hotel is the venue thatproduced the famous Cairo Declaration. It was published on 27November 1943 after discussions between the leaders of China,Britain and the United States, and was the master plan forrebuilding international order following the war with Nazi Germanyand Japan.

The Cairo Declaration was a laudable outcome of the war againstboth Germany, with its repellent Nazism, and Japan, with itsequally repugnant military fascism. It stated in explicit termsthat: “all the territories Japan has stolen from the Chinese, suchas Manchuria, Formosa (Taiwan) and the Pescadores, shall berestored to the Republic of China. Japan will also be expelledfrom all other territories she has taken by violence and greed.”

Less than two years later the Potsdam Proclamation, released on 26July 1945, reaffirmed that: “The terms of the Cairo Declarationshall be carried out.” The Japanese government accepted thePotsdam Proclamation in the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, andpledged to faithfully fulfill its obligations stipulated in theprovisions of the Potsdam Proclamation.

All of these facts show that in accordance with the CairoDeclaration, the Potsdam Proclamation and the Japanese Instrumentof Surrender, Diaoyu Dao, as affiliated islands of Taiwan, shouldbe returned, together with Taiwan, to China.”

So China’s logic is that the Senkaku/Diaoyu/Diaoyutai islands belongto Taiwan, and Taiwan belongs to China. The problem is that Taiwandoesn’t want to belong to China, and any alliance agreement betweenTaiwan and Japan is going to make the Chinese government apoplectic.Telegraph (London)

Syrian Defector: Bashar al-Assad making plans to flee to Russia

According to Abdullah al-Omar, who defected in September from theregime of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad and is currently living inTurkey, al-Assad has been staging terrorist bombings in order to blamethem on the opposition, and is coordinating plans with Russia to fleeto Moscow. Al-Omar worked in al-Assad’s media office, which wasresponsible for manufacturing facts. The following is my roughtranscription of what he said in the video:

“We were the team that faked the facts. The regimeuses deceptions to control people’s minds, and we used people whowere good at perjury.

Many of the big bombings that occurred in Damascus – the regimeblamed them on terrorist groups, but they were the work of theregime. The intelligence agencies did them, in coordination withthe president’s office. We knew hours in advance that they weregoing to happen, and cameras were set up in advance to take livevideo feed that could be sent to the international tv channels.They were especially busy when the Arab League observers visitedDamascus. In the bombings, they used prisoners and detainees anddead bodies to decorate the blast locations.

The July 18’th blast that killed four of al-Assad’s securityadvisors were done by two insiders at the National SecurityOffice, in coordination with opposition fighters. The bomb wentoff ten minutes early. If it had gone off at the right time,Bashar would have been killed.

The al-Assad regime knows that it can’t stay in power, and ismaking plans to flee to Russia. Russia is preparing 300apartments for the extended al-Assad family. Within 60 days,they’ll start fleeing. Bashar will be the last to go, after hereceives international guarantees that he won’t be prosecuted forwar crimes.”

Surprise drone over Israel changes Mideast dynamics

The drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), that crossed intoIsrael’s air space from the Mediterranean on Saturday and was shotdown by the Israeli air force (IAF) is now believed to have beendeveloped by Iran and launched by the terrorist group Hizbollah,operating out of Lebanon. The surprise is that Iran even has suchadvanced technology. The IAF spotted the drone because it was flyingvery high for surveillance purposes. It’s not known whether the IAFwould have spotted it if it had been flying much lower, and was armedwith missiles for attack. If not, then Israel has no known reliabledefense to this kind of attack. Ynet (Tel Aviv) and Slate

U.S. agrees to allow S. Korea to deploy long-range missiles

Under a 1979 agreement with the U.S., South Korea has been prohibitedfrom deploying long-range ballistic missiles with a range longer than300 km, or drones with a payload exceeding 500 kg. On Saturday,S. Korean announced a deal with the U.S. permitting them to extend therange of its missiles up to 800 km, and the payload of its drones upto 2.5 tons. The new limits would allow S. Korean missiles to strikeanywhere in North Korea, or even to reach Beijing. However, the SouthKoreans say that there are still enough restrictions imposed thatSouth Korea could still not defend itself effectively against a NorthKorean attack. Chosun Ilbo (Seoul) and Xinhua